In St. Petersburg, dozens of Africans were detained on cases of "Nigerian letters"

This morning, seven searches were conducted in St. Petersburg at the places of residence of suspected visitors from Nigeria. Employees of the Department of Economic Security of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Interpol and the Federal Security Service participated in operational activities. Currently, there are dozens of Africans in the premises of the Department of Economic Crimes and the Investigation Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and interrogations and identifications regarding fraud cases are being conducted.



Citizens of Nigeria and other African countries created websites with names of organizations similar in name to major product suppliers. From these sites they sent spam with commercial offers for the sale of goods - the very “Nigerian letters”. Then the Africans conducted a dialogue with representatives of firms, concluded contracts, and received money, which were transferred to current accounts opened in banks in St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region on forged passports of African citizens (Ghana, South Africa, etc.). They legalized the money they received by purchasing real estate and cars.



One of the victims was the Spanish company Constantino Gutierres SA, which, under the mineral fertilizer supply contract, transferred more than 15 million rubles. The money was withdrawn in one of the St. Petersburg banks from the current account, which was opened with a fake passport of a citizen of the Republic of Ghana.

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Fictitious companies were organized by Africans and outside the Russian Federation. After transferring money to settlement accounts in banks using remote banking services, they were transferred to settlement accounts of individuals opened in St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region using fake passports of African citizens. After that, the head of the organization stated to the bank that the money transfer was made unauthorized, and the bank was obliged to refund the amount transferred. Thus, more than 16.5 million rubles were transferred from a Canadian bank CIBS to an account opened with a fake passport of a citizen of Ghana. They tried to withdraw this money in one of the St. Petersburg banks, while some of the money was not yet obtained by an African, and the remaining 13 million rubles were blocked in the bank’s current account.



via rosbalt.ru & lenta.ru